Unity

Chapter Twenty Four

My feet took me down a path that I've never been down before. I knew that I would find a place where I could make some money if I walked far enough. It was dark outside and I was completely unprotected. The only thing I had with me was myself, a coat, and 15 pounds. I had to fend for myself, because 15 pounds was definitely not enough to buy a gun. I hated to think that I might need a gun, but being transgender, gay, and scrawny wasn't going to help me out.

I found a building with lots of lights and it looked familiar to me. Ah, yes. This is the place Eren and I always used to get wasted at when we were teenagers.

I stood behind the building and brought my knees up to my chest to try and keep warm. I know this may sound stupid, but I'm terrified of the dark and I'm alone, so I needed to be near lights to be comfortable.

It'd only taken a couple of minutes for a group of wasted teenagers to come outside, find me, and get me into an uncomfortable situation.

"Is that a girl or a boy?" there was a group of teenage boys standing in front of me smoking cigarettes.

"I don't know. Just ask it," it. A teenage boy walked up to me and told me to stand up. "Oh. It's short," I pushed myself further against a wall. It was a habit of mine I really needed to get out of...

"Are you a man, or--"

"I'm a man." They boy eyed me up and down and gave me a questioning look.

"How old are you?"

"23." The boy eyed me again.

"Prove it." I gave him a questioning look.

"Prove wh-"

"Prove you're a real man!" the boy threw a pack of cigarettes at me. "Smoke 10 of these. If you can't, then you're not a man." I looked at the pack and then back up at the boy.

"Are you serious?" The boy looked down at me, for he was probably even taller than Eren, and I had my answer.

"It's either this or we find out the hard way, pretty-boy." Pretty-boy. I've had some great experiences with that name... 

I opened the pack of cigarettes and looked at the boy again. He threw me a lighter and I put one to my mouth and lit the end of it. I've never experimented with cigarettes before, so I coughed a lot. The boy laughed at me and stared at me until I finished my first one.

"You're only 1/10 of the way there. Keep going or we're gonna have to find out for ourselves." He pointed to his group of two more teenage boys his age and I gulped. Getting raped by teenagers is really, really pathetic. I also wasn't in the mood for more people calling me a tranny-fag.

I held the second to my mouth and lit it. This one was easier because my lungs were already filled with smoke, so it didn't make much of a difference.

20 minutes later I'm on my 7th, and the three teenage boys are watching me like a hawk.

"Does a man smoke like that? Go faster, you sissy!" I took a large gulp of smoke and finished my 7th and went onto my 8th. Each got easier and easier, and by the time I finished my 10th I didn't want to stop. "Hey, it looks like you did it. A real man could have gone faster, though." He tried to take the pack and his lighter away from my hands, but I held onto them tight.

"C-Can I keep them?" the boy looked back at me with a confused glance. "Please? It's all I have," he looked at me for a minute and then nodded.

"Yeah, whatever." The teenagers left and I sat back in my corner with the cigarettes and the lighter. I saved the rest for the next day because I'd already smoked half of them and cigarettes are expensive from what I hear. I have to find a way to make money before I run out of my 15 pounds.